Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

¶ … Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. Specifically it will discuss it as a work built upon realistic and naturalistic premises. Realistic and naturalistic premises are a key to this play about memory, nature, and symbols.

Chekhov relies on objective details to make his points in this play. For example, he writes, "Father died six years ago, and a month later my brother Grisha was drowned in the river-- such a dear little boy of seven! Mother couldn't bear it; she went away, away, without looking round...." (Chekhov). This is an emotional line from Anya, but she says it realistically and unemotionally, showing how Chekhov attempts to make this play real, objective, and unemotional, so the characters seem somehow remote and distanced from the viewer. Chekhov uses the natural world often in the play too, from the title to blandly discussing the weather and the garden. He writes, "The only remarkable thing about the orchard is that it's very large. It only bears fruit every other year, and even then you don't know what to do with them; nobody buys any" (Chekhov). The family hangs on to their memories of what was through the cherry orchard, the direct opposite of the rest of the realism in this novel. They hang on to the orchard for sentimental reasons, something directly opposed to the reality Chekhov promotes, indicating their love of the natural world, and their inability to fit inside the real world of the present.

In conclusion, Chekhov's drama uses reality and naturalistic premises to show a family in decline who cannot face their circumstances or the solution. Living in the past, they insist on remaining there, while their world crumbles around them, and by using real situations and natural surroundings, Chekhov makes the family seem more real, and more pathetic because they refuse to budge from their positions.